If you think the thrash revival has lost its steam, think again. From California (where else?) comes Hexen, a Los Angeles band that takes their cue from the Bay Area greats of the 80's, delivering crushing thrash metal full of wild guitar work, energetic double bass drum blasts, and powerful vocals. This is catchy stuff, somewhat along the lines of early Death Angel or Exodus, yet pretty damn heavy and littered with lots of acrobatic guitar work. Hell, even the infamous Ed Repka did the CD cover artwork for these guys, adding State of Insurgency to his long list of great illustrations, which include covers for acts like Megadeth, Death, Nuclear Assault, and many others. The band finds themselves on Old School Metal Records, a fairly new label that hopefully will get a kick start by having these dudes kicking some serious ass for them. Hard to pick winners here, as each tunes is a pretty solid, mosh-worthy crusher, but some of the best are "Gas Chamber", "Knee Deep In the Dead", the monster thrasher "Bedlam Walls", the great instrumental "Desolate Horizons" (featuring some fantastic acoustic and electric guitar), and the insanely complex title track.

Though State of Insurgency isn't breaking any rules or going off into unchartered territory, it's still a very solid 80's era thrash album recorded in 2008. In some aspects it almost sounds out of place today, but you have to give these guys credit for honing in on a classic era and really doing it well. If you dug that old school 80's thrash, chances are you will love this.

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